Outside Manila: The state of blogging in the Visayas

Seven years ago, I started a blog. And since then, I never stopped blogging.

 

An online journal was something new for me back then. Who wouldn't get hooked on the fact that you can actually write your own opinions about anything under the sun, access and update it anytime you like, and eventually receive comments from people reading your journal? It was certainly like morphine for folks like me, who just love to write. And so I blogged about my daily musings, collected quotes and aggregated links to articles that I loved.

 

But there was also one thing that made me passionate about blogging: the community. 

 

Blogging communities

A blogger can build a community in his or her chosen niche. Whether about travel, food, or one's own home, communities and blogging societies will eventually be created when the blogger has that interest to make it grow. It can be sparked by frequent conversations with bloggers in that same niche, thereby fueling the creation of a community. 

 

This is what happened with the Iligan Bloggers Society, Inc. in Mindanao when we initially formed the group last February 2011. There was hesitation in the formation of the society, but together with Lovette Jacosalem and Xyza Yape, the group eventually grew through promotion and awareness campaigns. Passionate individuals were gathered up to further foster the growth. At this moment, IBS has 19 core society members in good standing. 

 

One other community that I am active in here in Visayas is the Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. It is a fairly large group of 40 bloggers, incorporated in 2008. 

 

For the Iligan Bloggers Society, their solidarity and commitment to grow the blogging community was tested when they hosted the Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2011 held in Iligan City. 

 

Last week, it was the Cebu Bloggers Society's turn to prove this same commitment. We held to torch of the Visayas blogging community as we hosted and organized the Visayas Blogging Summit 2011. 

 

The Summit   

It was early Saturday morning when I rushed out of the apartment. It was going to be a long day and I was already pumped up. Hailing a taxi early in the morning wasn't as tasking as I visualized the night before. In fact, I was on my way to SM City Cebu after five minutes of waiting.

 

Passing by the old Mactan-Mandaue bridge and seeing the first rays of the sun along the horizon between two islands was breathtaking. I didn't know that the summit itself will literally take my breath away.

 

The Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc., a nonprofit organization of which I am a trustee and the chairperson, concluded the Visayas Blogging Summit 2011on November 26, 2011. It was a summit held at the Trade Hall of SM City Cebu. It ended up being a jam-packed venue with over 200 attendees that included online and walk in registrants, media, sponsors, speakers and guests.

 

The blogger society together with PR Works, SM and RAFI organized this bloggers' summit in the Visayas. And together with volunteers from different schools around Cebu like CITE, CTU and USC, the event went as smooth as it could get.

 

 

It was more than just an offline blogger's event a gathering of passionate individuals and curious newbies interested in topics such as personal and professional blogging. But aside from them, it was also attended by entrepreneurs and professionals who were exposed to topics like blogging for business. Both audiences had the chance to listen to social media responsibility topics from the speakers too.

 

Highlights of the day

 

Despite having the Summit's Social Media Center fail several times because of issues in the venue's internet connection, the attendees still caused the hashtag "#vbs2011" to become a Trending Topic on Twitter as of 10:20am (Philippine Time) on November 26, 2011. 

 

The summit got a lot more interesting when the attendees got a special visit from Ms. Earth beauties courtesy of Philippine Airlines. We were able to help out escort the Ms. Earth beauties - Miss Estonia, Guam, Guatemala and England.

 

Mayor Mike Rama delivered his welcome talk at lunch time, perking up the crowd with his anti-corruption jingle, which left the crowd with a song to sing throughout the day.

 

Ms. Gina Lopez from ABS-CBN, who talked about "Saving Palawan", got the crowd on their feet shouting, "Yes to life. No to mining in Palawan."

 

Moving forward

 

Having trimmed down the membership to core members of only about 40 as an initial effort as Membership Committee, I believe that quality of the leaders and the quality of the community will still play an important role of molding more competitive and professional bloggers in the Visayas. The after-effect of the summit would not only make the Cebu Bloggers Society more organized but also make the whole Visayas aware of the emergence of digital communities. — TJD, GMA News Fleire Castro is the Chairman of the Membership Committee of the Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. and was the Secretariat Chairman for Visayas Blogging Summit. Her blog at www.fleirecastro.com contains her musings on current  social media topics.